Questions, answered
Everything people ask before buying — about the book, the format it teaches, and how to get a copy. Something missing? The free primer on how school debating works answers the on-the-day questions too.
A practical guide to teaching, training and running school debating, built around a real season of local, scaffolded debating. It covers how a debate runs, speaking order and times, the bell system, what adjudicators reward under Matter, Manner and Method, how a nine-round round-robin season is structured, and how disputes and cancellations are handled.
Teachers and coaches preparing a team, adjudicators and chairpersons running a debate, and parents and young speakers who want to understand what happens on debate day. It is written in plain language so a first-time coach or volunteer can run a debate straight from the page.
The format it teaches is a scaffolded competition designed for Years 5 and 6 — speakers who are new to debating. The mechanics it explains — speaking order, timing, and the Matter–Manner–Method judging criteria — are the same foundations used in debating at every level.
Two teams of three speakers plus one support member each, four-minute speeches with a three-bell timing system, a chairperson and timekeeper provided by the host school, and adjudication across Matter (arguments and evidence), Manner (delivery) and Method (structure).
Yes. The adjudication chapter explains the three judging categories in practice, and how competitions keep judging fair by cross-assigning adjudicators each round so no one judges a debate involving their own school.
The Handbook is priced at $30 Australian dollars.
Ordering opens soon — the first run is being printed. When ordering opens, you will be able to buy directly from this site for $30 AUD. In the meantime, see what’s inside.
J. Whately — a former debating champion at school and at university, and, by his own never-successfully-rebutted submission, the best debater in the world. J. Whately is a pen name.